Overview
ìpolicy, a residential certificate course to engage young leaders and journalists with social, economic and political issues through an understanding of public policy within the existing classical framework that emphasise limited government, rule of law, free trade, and individual rights. ìpolicy makes you look deeper to find out the root causes of India's problems and their relation to government policies. They challenge conventional wisdom and encourage you to come up with sustainable solutions!
The primary objective of this course is to enhance knowledge, skills, and abilities relating to the development of public policy, with emphasis on the meaningful inclusion of stakeholders and citizens.
Rationale
All policies of the government that come to bear upon the lives of the general public in some way can be broadly called as public policy. It comprises of policy decisions in different areas like education, health, governance, livelihood and environment. History is replete with examples of how a small change in policy has resulted in both glorious and disastrous results.
The role of government has been steadily changing, with increasing emphasis being placed on setting overall direction through policy and planning, on engaging stakeholders and citizens, and sometimes on empowering stakeholders or partners to deliver programs and services. Therefore, it is important to engage all concerned citizens to work for the broader public interest, to move beyond lobbying as special interest groups and become engaged as partners with the government and policy makers in meaningful dialogue to design a credible policy framework for better governance. In order to do this, citizens have to be equipped with a basic understanding of the processes and techniques of both policy formulation and public participation.
What is public policy? How do we judge good public policy? What are the stages of the policy development process? How do we align new policy within a complex framework, and how do we transfer the knowledge and ownership to those who are responsible for implementation? Who are the key players? What are their interests and positions? Where is the power? And most importantly why should I participate?
These are burning questions that need to be addressed in order to create a better society. Young leaders of the nation need to be encouraged to take their first step to in this director, to challenge, reflect, explore, act on ideas and make a difference?
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